Jeremiah's Peaceful, Shrinking Disposition

Naturally timid, Jeremiah longed for the quiet of retirement, where he need not witness the continued impenitence of his beloved nation. His heart was wrung with anguish over the ruin wrought by sin. “O that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears,” he mourned, “that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people! O that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them.” Jeremiah 9:1, 2.SS 218.3

His sensitive soul was pierced by the arrows of derision hurled at him. “I have become a laughingstock all the day; every one mocks me.” “Say all my familiar friends, watching for my fall ... ‘Perhaps he will be deceived, then we can overcome him.’” Jeremiah 20:7, 10, RSV.SS 218.4

But the faithful prophet was daily strengthened. “The Lord is with me as a dread warrior,” he declared in faith. “Therefore my persecutors will stumble, they will not overcome me. They will be greatly shamed.” Jeremiah 20:11, RSV. He learned to pray, “Correct me, O Lord, but in just measure; not in Thy anger, lest Thou bring me to nothing.” Jeremiah 10:24, RSV.SS 218.5

When tempted in his misery to say, “My strength and my hope is perished from the Lord” (Lamentations 3:18), Jeremiah recalled the providences of God in his behalf and exclaimed: “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Thy faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I will hope in Him.’ The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul that seeks Him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.” Lamentations 3:22-26, RSV.SS 218.6